If Ryse were a longer game full of interesting foes that deserved to be brutally chopped to pieces, it could have been great. Instead, it has to settle for being almost there.

Hitman still has plenty of potential and I look forward to seeing if the new direction comes closer to fulfilling it in the future, but for the moment it's hard to tell if the formula has changed too much or too little and if Blood Money represents a brave re-birth for the series or the beginning of the end.

The combat in Tails of Iron excels. The brutal, methodical mechanics never stop being satisfying, but I wish that I felt like I was doing it for more vital reasons. I can appreciate the artistic choice behind keeping things dialogue-free, I just wish the rest of the game felt as vital and interesting as the melee does.

If you can put up with the ever-present grind and can see through the frustrating moments then you’ll have a good time playing through Punch Club’s celebration of 90s action, if not then you may find yourself looking for a new keyboard, or worse, a monitor as a result of working through game related anger issues.

Overall Field of Glory II: Medieval offers just about everything one could ask for in a tabletop wargame simulation. The odd quirks and complexity are part of the charm for fans of the genre, although there’s little here to draw in fans who haven’t already become converts.

At the end of the day, Mega Man Legacy Collection 1 & 2 are fine collections, even if the first one shows significantly more care and love than the second. I feel Capcom missed out on the chance to add some developer commentary or a few interviews here, but ultimately the titles are what matter, and both contain excellent ports. For those planning on revisiting Mega Man or just wanting to glimpse a bit of gaming history, it’s hard to go wrong.

There’s a lot to like about Shiren. There are plenty of places to explore, there are intricate puzzle rooms that provide extra challenge, and the loot flows freely and generously. I’m just not sure I’ll get back to a place mentally where I’ll see Shiren’s travels through to the end — I became weary of the repeating gameplay loop much earlier than I thought I would.

Beyond Mankind Divided‘s fumbled sociopolitical themes, the plot’s just dull and too small in scale.

It’s rare that I’ll forgive lackluster story or mediocre combat, but the unbelievably positive energy in its other aspects creates such a winning atmosphere that I find it hard to hold its failures against it. Yes, Biomutant‘s story could be a lot better, but it’s also an adventure where an otter in a wetsuit builds the player a jetski so they can cruise to an archipelago and battle mutants around the rusty remains of ancient shipwrecks. I wish the fighting was more thoughtfully designed, but then again, a lemur taught me how to use a submarine so I could fight a giant turtle in an underwater city. What Biomutant lacks in polish, it makes up for in audacity, and I appreciate that.

Nice Day for Fishing is a great mixture of humor, adventure, and chill vibes. If the player is a fan of Viva La Dirt League, there’s also many easter eggs and references to enjoy. However, even if they’re not, Nice Day for Fishing is still a lighthearted RPG adventure — just don’t expect anything too deep.

She Remembered Caterpillars is a beautifully crafted and well-designed puzzler that also touches on the grief of losing a parent. While the game doesn’t tackle its emotional themes on a large scale, it certainly left a lasting impression on me after only a few hours of gameplay.

At its heart, Ghost Giant is a story centered around mental health struggles and the necessity of seeking help from others. Unfortunately, the developers do little to explore the issues beyond using them as a pretext for the Giant to solve Louis’ external, superficial struggles, leaving little opportunity to bridge the emotional gap between Louis and I. Luckily, Ghost Giant has a beautiful world full of charm to help fill that gap.

A thin plot is only a minor issue in the larger context of what the game gets right. With an innovative main mechanic and great balance of complexity within each stage, Peaky Blinders: Mastermind is a nice, tight experience capable of making any puzzle player raise a triumphant fist after an intense sequence.

EA markets NHL 26 as “the most authentic hockey experience yet,” and that’s not entirely wrong. The physics refinements, data integration, and visual polish make this the best version for anyone who skipped last year. But the improvements are incremental, not transformative. If you already own NHL 25, you’ve seen nearly everything this has to offer… it’s just a little smoother, a little prettier, and a little harder to justify at full price.

I give them double credit for doing it on the Wii—to attempt something that so clearly stands out from the piles of waggle-tastic, brightly-colored shovelware was a bold move, indeed. Although Deadly Creatures might not be entirely successful, I would call it a success. Rat

AngerForce: Reloaded is a decent shooter that controls well and offers some fantastic boss battles, but the problematic health/continue system will probably limit its appeal to only the most hardcore shmup fans.

It's hard not to cringe when a game takes such liberties with its license. The introduction of a currency system and randomly placed "stores" to buy items from seems more than a little forced in the Tolkien universe.

Despite the warts and jankiness in Metal Wolf Chaos HD, allowances have to be made for its age, but as a lifelong FROM fan, I’m thrilled to finally play this painfully conspicuous gap in their Western releases. Mech-heads will find it a rough novelty and Souls fans will get a shock to their systems, but for a certain segment of players, Metal Wolf Chaos HD is a great snapshot of where FROM Software was fifteen years ago.

Bithell’s first experimental foray into doing a game short is a successful one. My time spent riding the rails with this robot detective was pleasant enough, and I have much respect for any game that respects my time. I’m up for another, sir.

Darktide has a lot going for it — a beloved IP, crunchy gunplay, and a gorgeous presentation. Sadly, it’s not the endlessly-playable showstopper some had hoped, instead offering a repetitious gameplay cycle made more apparent by slow progression and little mission variation. It’s clear Fatshark has further plans for their latest endeavor and it may yet reach its full potential after a few patches and expansions, but for now it’s best to set expectations.

As a visual feast and a technical achievement, Fated is a success. This is a beautiful world to explore, and features some of the most interesting and unique design aesthetics available on PSVR. Much of the writing and all of the acting is admirable, and it’s only the strange choice to keep the main character so distant from the action that prevents this project from being an unqualified success. When viewed as a one-hour stroll through a unique environment, it’s a winner. When taken as a larger work, the developers bungled their chance to do something more resonant.

Shadowgate doesn't religiously preserve the architecture or the puzzles of the original game, and is better for it. What it does retain is the castle's sense of threat and atmosphere of danger—rare things to find in an adventure game.

For a two- or three-hour game with an asking price of $7, Leo's Fortune might seem a bit overpriced, but throughout the journey I found myself enjoying the controls, the well-placed puzzles, and yes, even the nostalgic gaming environments.

I largely enjoyed my time with God Eater: Resurrection. Even though it’s a little too padded with filler missions featuring the same roaming enemies over and over, laying into Aragami with massive hammers and swords that could cut dumpsters in half generally makes for some good times.

Looking a little deeper as someone who's been around the block, it's disappointing to see that so much of Shadow Complex feels utterly bereft of inspiration. It's certainly a job well done, but really, this job's been done before.

As a philosophical rumination on the ownership of art, The Beginner's Guide is what Boswell might call an "ingenious sophistry", but not a compelling argument. As an exploration of an obsessive relationship that failed painfully, it's a sneakily effective success. Is the latter so bound up in the former that it loses impact? I thought not, but that's just me.

While it's widely considered one of the best Genesis titles ever, I'd say the appeal is limited to those who have a sense of nostalgia for it. I'm glad I tried it, and with a bargain price it's worth a shot to those who want to educate themselves on this piece of video game history, but I'm guessing it won't hold much appeal to new-school gamers unless they've got a local buddy to play with.

In the end, Resurrection works well as a reboot of the original IP, but nostalgia can only carry it so far. If the overall difficulty felt a little more fair and a lot less mean-spirited, I would recommended it to anyone looking for a challenging platformer. However, the contract Resurrection wants the player to sign on to is a Faustian one, demanding patience, and perhaps a small bit of one’s sanity.